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an a^bress ^elivere^ at the delebratton of the 

jTiftietb anniversary of tbe ITncorporation of 

Hewburi^port as a Citip, 3une 24, 1901, 

bi? aibert E. ipillsburi?. 



Author. 



ADDRESS 



^^1 



OF 



ALBERT E. PILLSBURY. 



The event which we celebrate today, the new birth 
of the town into a city, is more than a change in the form 
of government. Cities were the earliest seats of what 
we call civilization. "Civis" — the citizen — was a title 
of honor. The walled city was the stronghold and 
defence of learning and the arts. The ancient world 
survives in the history of its cities. To us it is little 
more than Ilium, Babylon, Carthage, Athens, Rome. 
Cities were and are the centers of wealth and power. 
They are the distinguished members of the state. So 
the admission of a town into the sisterhood of cities has 
an interest and significance beyond that which attends 
the mere increase of numbers. It is the opening of a new 
day. The community takes a higher rank, and with it 
every inhabitant acquires a new distinction. The local 
pride and public spirit of a home-loving people naturally 
unite to set apart such an event for public commem- 
oration. 

Newburyport has another and a peculiar reason for 
observing it. This anniversary is more than the mere 
recurrence of a date. Fifty years ago a new town had 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



begun to arise here, on the foundations of the old; a 
town of different interests, different customs, largely of 
different people. The city charter marked the full open- 
ing of the new industrial age, of which half a century is 
now completed. 

The celebration of these civic anniversaries may 
mean much or little, according to the spirit which inspires 
it. They are natural halting-places in the procession of 
events, where we stop and look backward a moment over 
our course. But we move forward, not backward. Such 
a day is not for idle boasting, as one who putteth off his 
harness. It is a day to look forward, and to gird up the 
strength for new tasks; fortunate they who can look for- 
ward with tranquil eyes. If Newburyport were a decay- 
ing city, her character gone, her enterprise extinct, her 
great history but a perishing memory; if we could not 
look to the past without regret nor to the future without 
apprehension; this would be an idle and unmeaning 
holiday, soon over and soon forgotten. But if, on the 
other hand, we find in the record of fifty years, and in 
forecast of the years to come, that which will sustain 
hope, strengthen confidence, and stimulate courage; if 
our holiday banners are the ensigns of an advancing 
march, and our bells and cannon speak with the voice of 
resolve no less than exultation; nay, if taking counsel 
even of our mistakes, we can gather from the experience 
of the past new wisdom for the benefit of the future, then 
indeed will this be no empty celebration, but a day to be 
marked and remembered in the city's calendar. 

I ask leave to speak here as one of this family. 
When Edward Rawson, town clerk and local magistrate 
of Newbury, removed to Boston in 165 1 to take the place 
of Colonial Secretary, he sold his homestead on the 
"country road," now High street, to my first ancestor in 



CITY CHARTER OF NKWBURYPORT 



this countr}^ whose lineal descendants have possessed it 
down to this day. I regret that his only claim to peculiar 
distinction seems to have been in getting himself fined, in 
the sum of "one noble," for his part in that thirty-years 
war which shook the foundations of old Newbury church, 
the Parker- Woodman controversy. But he stood for the 
rule of the majority, and time has vindicated him. Three 
generations of my ancestors, and many more of my 
kindred, have mingled their bones with your soil. All of 
my name and family in America look to this spot as the 
cradle of their race in the new world. It is no unlineal 
hand that I extend to you in embracing the opportunity 
to acknowledge, if I cannot repay, the natural debt which 
we all owe to the home of our fathers. 

It was an ancient superstition that great events are 
attended by storms and portents. Those who observe 
such things may like to recall that in the midst of the 
movements at the state capital which brought this city 
into existence, in the spring of 1851, a great tempest 
swept over this region, the like of which, according to 
local tradition, was never known here before. Probably 
most of us will agree that no special significance or effect 
upon the fortunes of Newburyport is to be ascribed to 
this convulsion of nature. There is another contempora- 
neous fact of more interest which did affect them. It was 
only a narrow chance, hardly more than an accident as it 
now appears, that gave birth to this city. It will not be 
without interest to relate how the event came about 
which furnishes the occasion for this festival. 

On the fourteenth day of January, 1851, Abner Ken- 
iston and one hundred and eighty-four others, "inhabitants 
of that part of Newbury called Belleville parish," pre- 
sented to the General Court their petition, praying that 
"the territory aforesaid, bounded southeasterly by New- 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



buryport, from the Merrimac river to Anvil Rock in 
common pasture, being the southwesterly corner of 
Newburyport, and thence by a straight line to the north- 
easterly corner of Newbury in Birchen meadow, may be 
set off from Newbur}^ and incorporated into a town by 
the name of Belleville." 

This was the latest in a long series of applications to 
the legislature by the people of Newburyport or adjacent 
parts of Newbury, indicating discontent with their situa- 
tion under the act of 1764, by which Newburyport was 
made a town of an area variously stated at from six 
hundred and thirty to six hundred and forty-seven acres, 
the smallest ever known to the province or common- 
wealth. The prosperous village of Newburyport had 
soon overflowed these narrow borders. This overflow, 
bound to Newburyport in interest but to Newbury in law, 
was a disturbing element in the old agricultural town. 
There was jealousy and bickering in the management of 
its affairs, between the men who plowed the land and the 
men who plowed the sea. Petitions for annexation of 
parts of Newbury to Newburyport were presented to the 
legislatures of 1794, 1821, 1827, 1832, 1834, 1835, 1843, 
and 1847, without success. In 1828 some inhabitants of 
Belleville, or the "• fifth parish," asked for incorporation 
as a separate town, to which Newbury assented; but 
others asked for annexation to Newburyport, and both 
movements were defeated. In 1846 the legislature was 
asked to reunite Newbury and Newburyport, but New- 
bury would not have you. 

Upon the petition for the incorporation of the town 
of Belleville, in 1851, notice was ordered to Newbury, 
and on February 8th the town voted not to oppose it. 
In this petition, and this action of the town of Newbury 
upon it, there was a large possibility that Newbur3^port 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 



might never come into existence as a city. The only 
surviving member of the legislative committee on towns 
of that year* is aiithorit}' for the statement that upon first 
consideration of this petition it appeared that the differ- 
ences of three-quarters of a century between Newbury- 
port and Newbury were likely to be merged in the new 
town of Belleville. In this posture of affairs, a seemingly 
trifling intervention changed, in hardly more than a day, 
the whole course of events and of your future history. 

The incorporation of cities in Massachusetts had 
been undertaken reluctantly and with many doubts, which 
even a constitutional amendment hardly quieted, and not 
until the town-meeting of Boston, with forty thousand 
inhabitants, had become an unmanageable body. But 
Salem and Lowell had followed in 1836, Cambridge in 
1846, New Bedford in 1847, Worcester in 1848, Lynn in 
1850, and by 185 1 the movement was well under way. 
To Caleb Cushing, then representing Newbury in the 
legislature, it was suggested by the legislative committee 
that it would be more in line with current events to 
enlarge Newburyport and give it a city charter than to 
create another small town. It would seem that the com- 
mittee suspended action upon the Keniston petition, that 
Mr. Cushing might seize the opportunity to make New- 
bur3'port a city. 

Apparently he lost no time in acting upon this hint. 
On February 13th he presented a memorial of Jacob 
Merrill and twenty-two others, who had signed the 
Keniston petition, withdrawing from it their names and 
support; a remonstrance of Francis Lord and seventy- 
three other residents against it; and a similar remonstrance 
from Sarah Little and eleven other women residents, 
declaring that "although unused by our former habits 

• Hon. James Dinsinoor, of Lowell. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



and the customs of the country to active interest in 
political or municipal affairs, 3^et we believe it to be our 
right, and feel it to be our duty, to express our opinions 
and wishes upon this question." To this early but active 
assertion of woman's rights this city may owe its exist- 
ence. Two days later these remonstrances were followed 
by a petition of Moses Pettingell and one hundred and 
one others, residents of the Ridge and Joppa, and two 
days later still by a similar petition of William Goodwin 
and forty-nine others, residents of the westerly part of 
Newbury, for annexation of their territory to Newbury- 
port. February 19th, immediately following these peti- 
tions and remonstrances, and apparently in pursuance of 
an understanding with the committee, the petitioners for 
the town of Belleville were given leave to withdraw. 
Upon the petitions for annexation, notice was ordered to 
Newbury and Newburyport, which voted their assent. 
The annexation bill was reported April 3d, and became a 
law April 17th. One week later Newburyport appointed, 
in town-meeting, a committee of ten, headed by Mr. 
Gushing, to apply for a city charter. Their petition was 
presented the following day, and a charter was reported 
May I St, which became a law May 24th by the approval 
of Governor George S. Boutwell, who remains among us, 
full of years and honors, to witness the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the act. June 3d the charter was accepted by the 
inhabitants, June i6th city officers were elected, and June 
24th, fifty years ago this day, the new government was 
organized, and Newburyport took her place among the 
cities of the commonwealth. 

The new city paid her newly-annexed inhabitants 
the appropriate compliment of selecting from their num- 
ber, as the first mayor, that remarkable man whose hand 
had been so active in procuring the charter. The 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT >J 

versatile genius of Caleb Gushing was never more strik- 
ingly illustrated than at this period when, within the 
space of a year and a half, he is found filling in succession 
the offices of representative in the legislature, mayor of 
Newburyport, justice of the supreme judicial court, and 
attorney general of the United States. Of his colleagues 
in the original city government of 185 i, your esteemed 
fellow-citizen, Philip K. Hills, alone survives to join in 
this commemoration. 



The city of Newburyport stands out against an 
historic background, the like of which, in richness of 
color and variety of interest, belongs to few cities even 
of this ancient and historic commonwealth. To the eye 
of the native or descendant it reflects all the hues of this 
radiant nimbus. The very sound of the name stirs the 
historic imagination. Without any artificial advantage, 
never a capital nor even a county-seat, the capital itself 
hardly excels this city in wealth of historic memories. 

Fortunately it is not left to me to relate her history. 
It is written in the pages of Gushing, his first published 
work; in Goffin's history of the Newburys, that New 
England classic, to which all paths of antiquarian research 
finally lead; in the later work of Euphemia Vale Smith; 
in the "Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian," a picture, 
perfect as a cameo, of the actual daily life of the people 
of old Newburyport; and in that sumptuous volume in 
which a worthy son and citizen here present* has painted 
with the hand of affection, for the delight of posterity, the 
men and scenes hallowed by local tradition, now disap- 
peared or disappearing. The muse of Whittier has cast 
her spell upon it. It has been sung in the verse of native 



• Ex-Mayor John James Currier. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



poets, and recited b}^ orators on many occasions — and 
yet the whole story of Newburyport has never been told. 
We cannot turn from the picture without a passing 
glance, nor can we rightly view the city of today without 
a brief retrospect, however imperfect, of the events which 
gave it birth. 

The history of Newburyport falls naturally into four 
principal divisions: the colonial period, of settlement and 
natural growth, of Puritan theology, witchcraft, earth- 
quakes, and the first promptings of freedom, leading up 
to the incorporation of the town in 1764; the days of the 
old town in its prosperity, from the close of the Revolution 
to the great fire and the war of 181 2; the years of doubt 
and discouragement that followed, from which the town 
emerged with the beginning of manufactures, culminating 
in the birth of the city; and the half-century now com- 
pleted. We cannot separate the early history of New- 
buryport from that of old Newbury, nor make a distinct 
partition of its honors or memories between them. If a 
Solomon came to that judgment, each would have it 
remain one and indivisible. But our Newbury and West 
Newbury neighbors will indulge us in the recollection 
that much, perhaps most, that is remarkable in the history 
of the old town was enacted on this spot, and so is justly 
part of the heritage and possessions of Newburyport, 
and as such we must claim the right to speak of it; a 
claim the more readily to be conceded as we cannot take 
their history from them though taking it to ourselves. 

The situation of the town favored both inland trade 
and foreign commerce, — ''terra marique" is appropriately 
written on the city's scroll — and here the commerce of 
Massachusetts practically began; a commerce which not 
only filled the purse but broadened the horizon. It 
quickened the narrow and somber life of that Puritan 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURVPORT 



people with the elements of romance that lie in the 
wonders and mysteries of the sea. They saw visions of 
far-off lands, and dreamed of voyacres and the prizes of 
adventure. It was with the peace of 1783 that the golden 
age of old Nevvburyport began. For a generation follow- 
ing, its story is unique in the history of New England. 
Toward the end of the eighteenth century Europe was in 
arms. The neutrality of the United States, and its natural 
advantages for commerce, threw into American hands a 
large share of the carrying trade of the world. The skill 
of Newburyport shipwrights, and the energy and courage 
of Newburyport merchants and mariners, opened to this 
modest provincial town a career of marvelous prosperity. 
It was a time of great hazards, but of great profits. Out 
of commercial enterprise a town arose here which almost 
rivalled the brilliancy of a foreign capital. Then New- 
buryport, a grand dame arrayed in silks and jewels, 
holding her court in a splendor almost regal, drew to her 
feet much of the brightest and best of the character, 
intellect, and culture of the commonwealth. Here the 
Tracys, the Daltons, the Jacksons, the Lowells, the Bart- 
letts, the Greenlea fs, theWiggles worths, theWheel wrights, 
the Hoopers, the Littles, the Lunts, the Hales, the 
Browns, and other families of no less worth, formed a 
constellation whose luster makes a shining page in the 
history of the town. Stately mansions, fitted and adorned 
with European luxury, surrounded with gardens and 
terraces, rose along the "ridge", the villas of opulent mer- 
chants stood in the midst of baronial estates in the 
environs, gorgeous equipages filled the streets, the gentry 
clothed themselves and their families in broadcloths, 
velvets, and laces, and dined off plate at banquets mel- 
lowed with the choicest vintages of the world, and 
wealth, intellect, and culture united to make Newburv- 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



port a social and commercial center hardly inferior in 
attractions to the metropolis itself. In wealth and popu- 
lation it was second only to Boston and Salem; in com- 
mercial and social importance it was hardly second to 
either. 

But all this splendor blossomed from a single root, 
and it withered almost as soon as it had grown. 
With the approach of the war of 1812 the clouds gathered 
over Newburyport. In the midst of the strangulation of 
commerce by embargoes and non-intercourse acts came 
the devastating fire of May 31, 181 1. Fortune had veiled 
her face. From these multiplied calamities the old New- 
buryport never arose. When prosperity returned, it 
was a new day and a new town. Before the fire, New- 
buryport had seven thousand six hundred and thirty-four 
souls and more than seven millions of wealth. It took 
thirty years to regain her former numbers, and the 
property valuation of 181 1 was never again reached until 
1856, nor permanently restored until 1865. 

The decline of old Newburyport was the inevitable 
result of causes of wider operation than the war or the 
fire. When commerce again spread her wings, after the 
war of 181 2, they bore her away from Newburyport to 
the greater ports and harbors more favored by nature. 
The day of small craft was past. The bar at the river's 
mouth was an obstacle to vessels of larger draft and ton- 
nage which no degree of local enterprise could sur- 
mount. Then came the Middlesex canal, diverting the 
inland trade. For a generation Newburyport was almost 
at a standstill. Some of her capitalists were ruined, 
others sought new fields of enterprise, and those who 
remained could not in a moment repair the disasters 
which had shattered their fortunes. From the fire to a 
time near the middle of the century there was doubt, 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT II 

discouragement, stagnation. But the universal law of 
compensation was at work. As one thing goes, another 
comes. The seed of the future prosperity of Newbury- 
port was planted in 1834, ^^e year that saw the erection 
of the first cotton factory. The smoke of the chimneys 
of the Essex mill was the signal that manufactures had 
come in, to take the place of commerce. This mill was 
soon followed by others, and by shoe manufacture, an 
ancient industry of the town, on an extended scale. The 
opening of the Eastern railroad, in 1840 followed by the 
connection of the city with the Boston & Maine railroad, 
in 1850, stimulated these and other enterprises, and by 
185 I Newburyport was fairl}' entered upon a new indus- 
trial career, destined to excel and to outlast the excep- 
tional but unstable fortunes of the old town. And with 
this revival of industry the city began. 

A survey of the ensuing fifty years, of which this 
day marks the completion, would show that Newburyport 
has kept fully abreast of the age in all the lines of civic 
development. Public spirit and private munificence have 
combined to endow the city with every agency and 
appliance for the promotion of the public welfare. The 
introduction of gas lighting in 1852, since supplemented 
by electricity; the founding of the public library in 1854, 
a memorable event in the history of any city; the con- 
struction of the City railroad, in 187 1, connecting the 
water-front with the Boston & Maine railroad; the open- 
ing, in 1873, of the first horse-railway, between New- 
buryport and Amesbury, now developed into a network 
of electric lines extending in all directions; the gift to 
the city, in the same 3'ear, of the Atkinson common as a 
public pleasure ground; the liberal bequest, in 1880, for 
the erection of a city almshouse, completed and occupied 



12 FIFTIETH AKXmiRSARY OF THE 

in 1889; the introduction of a public water suppl}-, in 
1881; the incorporation of the Wheel'w^right Scientific 
School, in 1S82; the endowment, in 1883, of that most 
gratefiil of all public charities, a free hospital, to which 
public-spirited citizens have since made substantial con- 
tributions, crowned by the recent gift of land and means 
for the erection of a new hospital building; the unique 
benefaction, in 1885, for the watering of the public 
streets; the public sewerage S3'stem, begun in 1889, now 
so far extended as to embrace the greater part of the cit}'; 
these and other public improvements, which time forbids 
me to enumerate, have marked the progress of the city. 

The finer aesthetic sense, which refuses to be satisfied 
with merely material things, has not been inactive during 
this period. The statue of Washington has risen in the 
park; the bronze figure of Garrison, the most illustrious 
son of Newbur3-port of the last centur}', whose appeal for 
human rights she refused in a moment of madness to 
hear, stands a perpetual witness to the final triumph of 
truth; and public fountains, pleasure grounds, and other 
objects of art and beaut}-, are ministering to the eye and 
the taste and stimulating public spirit to emulate the 
generosit)^ of the benefactors of the cit}-, whose names 
will be held in grateful remembrance. 

The religious activity for which this community was 
remarkable from the earliest times, if abated in zeal is 
unimpaired in its wholesome influence upon the public 
morals and the social welfare of the city. Charitable, 
scientific, historical, and literary enterprises have contin- 
ued in undiminished vigor, maintaining the high character 
of the city for intelligence, public spirit, philanthropy, 
and all the social virtues. 



CITY CHARTER OK NEWBURYPORT 



13 



This is a material age, and Newburyport is an indus- 
trial city. A distinguished citizen of Massachusetts has 
recently remarked that if you wish to stir this generation 
of Americans to enthusiasm, you must do it with a column 
of figures. While there is truth in this satire, I shall not 
assume that the people of Newburyport can be moved 
only by an account of material growth or commercial 
profits. But figures may be pregnant with the most sig- 
nificant facts, and these symbols must be emplo3ed to 
measure the material progress of a community like this. 
The industrial history of Newburyport in these fifty 
years discloses some interesting and remarkable facts, of 
which the most notable is the great increase of wealth and 
industries in contrast with the slow growth of popu- 
lation. 

In 1850 the town, by the Federal census, had 91^72 
inhabitants. It is said in written statements presented to 
the legislature with the annexation petition, of 185 1, 
agreeing in this though differing in other particulars, 
that the population of the annexed territory was 2842. 
Assuming this to be correct, and the weight of evidence 
seems to support it though the number has been differ- 
ently stated, the original population of the city in 1851 
was 12,414. In 1900 it was 14,478. The gain in half a 
century is 2064, being 16.62 per cent., or one-sixth, an 
average of but one-third of one per cent, yearly. Each 
decade except that following i860, and each period of 
five years since 1870 except the last, shows a slight gain. 
The Federal census of 1900 charges Newburyport with a 
loss of 74 inhabitants since 1895, which has doubtless 
been more than made good by this time — certainly it 
would be if the census were taken today. The increase 
in the number of ratable polls since 1851 is 1831, a gain 
of 72 per cent, as against a gain of less than 17 per cent. 



14 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

in total population; 87 per cent, of the whole gain in 
numbers being of this class. This is characteristic of a 
manufacturing population, but it indicates an unusual 
proportion of those who are not "set in families." 

The exhibit of the wealth and industries of the city 
is in marked contrast with this slight increase of numbers. 
From 185 I to 1900 real property has increased in value 
from $2,596,400 to $7,286,000, a gain of 180 per cent.; 
in other words, it has nearly trebled. Personal property, 
including corporate stocks not appearing in the local val- 
uation, has risen from $2,880,200 in 1851 to $3,632,033 
in 1900, a gain of $751,833, or 26 per cent. The whole 
wealth of the city has risen from $5,476,600 in 185 i to 
$10,918,033 in 1900, or more than 99 per cent. Thus 
property has substantially doubled while population has 
increased but one-sixth; in other words, wealth has in- 
creased about twelve times as fast as population. 

Industrial statistics were not compiled in 1850. The 
growth of the local industries within the city period can 
be approximately shown by comparing those of 1845 and 
1855 with those of 1900. In 1845 ^^e six leading indus- 
tries were, in this order, cotton goods, boots and shoes, 
machinery and metal goods, shipbuilding, snuff and to- 
bacco, clocks, watches and jewelry. The amount of cap- 
ital invested in all industries, as nearly as known, was 
$757,300, the average number of persons employed 1598, 
the whole annual value of products $841,258. In 1855 
shipbuilding temporarily superseded boots and shoes as 
second in importance, foods supplanted jewelry, and the 
order was, cotton goods, shipbuilding, boots and shoes, 
machinery and metals, snuff and tobacco, food products. 
The whole capital invested was $1,467,300, persons em- 
ployed 2904, value of products $2,422,632. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEVVBURYPORT 15 

In 1900 the order of importance was, boots and shoes, 
cotton i^oods, building, clothing, food products and metals, 
Shipbuilding and tobacco manufactures had disappeared 
from the six leading industries. Clothing and building 
had come in, and boots and shoes had forged ahead of 
cotton goods and taken the first place. The whole capi- 
tal invested was $3,863,199, persons employed 3076, value 
of products $5,685,768. 

In the fifty-five years from 1845 to 1900 the capital 
invested in manufacturing industries had increased over 
410 per cent., or nearly five-fold; the number of persons 
emplo3'ed had increased about 93 per cent., or nearly 
double; the value of products had increased over 575 per 
cent, or more than six-fold. In the forty-five years from 
1855 to 1900 the increase of capital invested was over 163 
per cent., or nearly treble; the increase in persons em- 
ployed was about 6 per cent.; the increase in the value 
of products was over 134 per cent., or more than double. 

It is evident that the increase in manufacturing in- 
dustries was well under way between 1845 and 1855. 
They were planted and growing before the city arose. 
The value of products of the industries has increased in 
a larger proportion than the capital invested, and in more 
than six times the proportion of persons employed; a 
result due, without doubt, to improved machinery and 
facilities, to the change in the character of the industries, 
and to skilful management. The value of manufactures 
has more than doubled while population has increased but 
one-sixth; in other words, the ratio of increase in the 
products of manufacture is more than twelve times as 
great as in population. 

One plain conclusion from these facts may well be 
the subject of congratulation here. The material inter- 
ests of the city have prospered because there is a healthy 



1 6 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

diversity of industries and employments. In the old 
times everything was centered in commerce, and when 
commerce shook her elusive wings and Hew away from 
old Newburyport, she took prosperity with her. In the 
city of today prosperity is safely anchored in the found- 
ations of a score of mills and factories. 



We are celebrating the adoption of city government, 
and some consideration of that subject cannot be out of 
place. As much that must be said of it is not to its credit, 
I begin by saying, as fortunately may be said with truth, 
that city government in Newburyport has developed no 
occasion for unusual complaint. This city is at least as 
fortunate as its neighbors. If there is dissatisfaction here 
with city government, or if it is declining in character, 
this result may fairly be ascribed to inherent defects of 
the system. Accordingly, in glancing at this subject, 
which can be done here only in the broadest perspective, 
I speak only of city government in general. If it has 
succeeded here, there is no better reason for this celebra- 
tion. If it has not, we can make no better use of a 
moment than to consider the reasons. The subject is of 
general importance, as the movement of population now 
sets strongly towards the cities, in which two-thirds of 
the people of this Commonwealth are dwelling at this 
moment. 

Perhaps city government is not, on the whole, so 
black as it is painted. The complaints against it are ex- 
aggerated in the heat of party warfare, or by the criticism 
of theorists who forget that perfection cannot be reached 
in the actual running of governmental machinery. 
Making due allowance for all this, there are substantial 
grounds of dissatisfaction, which challenge the attention 
of all students of public affairs who realize how much 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT I7 

more closely the interests of the average citizen are 
bound up with the local than with the general govern- 
ment, in a country where the municipality absorbs more 
than four-fifths of all the direct taxes, and municipal 
debts are ten times greater than all other public obliga- 
tions. And it must not be forgotten that the sight of 
open misgovernment is demoralizing. If tolerated, it will 
corrupt the springs of public virtue. Unless the people 
change the character of the government for the better 
the government will change the character of the people 
for the worse. 

The general discontent with the actual results of city 
rule is evident from the fact that it is one of the most 
irrepressible themes of popular discussion. The press 
teems with it, publicists theorize upon it in volumes of 
learned essays, statisticians embellish it with figures, 
legislatures labor with it and give birth to whole libraries 
of statutes more or less impotent or mischievous, and the 
failure of all these attempts at reform has led to the sug- 
gestion of a variety of other remedies, ranging in force 
and character from disfranchisement to lynching. It 
must be conceded that if the genius of this people for 
self-government has failed anywhere, it is at this point. 
The general inefficiency of city government in this coun- 
try stands confessed. Our commonwealth is happily yet 
free from any great municipal scandal or any flagrant 
example of misrule, but we cannot be surprised that 
towns qualified for city government hesitate to adopt it, 
and that at least one of our cities is today seriously con- 
sidering the question of surrendering its charter. 

The process of degeneration is familiar. Municipal 
expenditure, necessarily large, usually extravagant, not 
infrequently reckless, offers an irresistible temptation to 
the large and growing class of those who wish to live 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 



without work at the public expense. Wheresoever the 
carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. A 
municipal "ring" is evolved, which controls the city gov- 
ernment, a "boss" arises who controls the ring, the peo- 
ple are dethroned, power passes from responsible officers 
to irresponsible and unscrupulous hands, and the way is 
open for a carnival of misrule. The public moneys are 
diverted from their proper uses to enrich a horde of 
political parasites; salaried offices are confiscated as the 
legitimate spoil of the workers; jobbery takes toll of all 
municipal expenditure; and even the public schools and 
the public charities are made to pay tribute of corrup- 
tion. Public office acquires a bad name. Citizens who 
have the largest stake in honest government turn their 
backs in contempt upon the public service and abdicate 
all active participation in political affairs, and the descend- 
ants of the men who waged a seven years' war against 
threepence a pound on tea quietly submit to be looted of 
millions by political gangs organized for plunder, whose 
operations are a public scandal, and whose existence in 
the face of a well-directed public sentiment would be 
impossible. 

There is one short, if cynical, answer to all this. 
Popular government will never be better than the people 
who make it. If the people of the cities are no better 
than their government, if they have really become indif- 
ferent, reckless, and corrupt, if character is declining, if 
public spirit is becoming extinct, municipal and all other 
misrule is accounted for. The general popular indiffer- 
ence to misgovernment is a striking phenomenon, the 
causes of which lie deeper than our inquiry today can 
extend. But it is yet true, whatever the portents, that if 
the whole people of any city could be polled upon the 
direct issue of honest government, they would speak for 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT I9 

it with no uncertain voice. The practical difficulty is 
that an active and resolute minority, having a personal 
interest to make the public treasury a subject of private 
plunder, contrive by superior zeal and organization to 
control or suppress the political influence of an indiffer- 
ent and heedless majority. A large proportion of the 
voting population of most cities has no substantial stake 
in honest administration. The taxpayers are usually a 
minority. Those who vote are not those who pay. 

The inefficiency of city government is due to a variety 
of causes. Some of them are inherent and unavoidable; 
a fact not always remembered. Conditions vary with 
natural situation, systems of local law, the character of 
industries and population, and other circumstances. No 
system would be the best everywhere. Our system has 
some features which are undesirable anywhere, and for 
the perpetuation of these, at least, there is no justification. 
Any efficient remedy must be so simple as to be easily 
applied, it must recognize unalterable facts and condi- 
tions, and it must restore to city government the control- 
ling power of sound public sentiment. 

The government of all cities is necessarily expensive. 
This appears in the financial history of Newburyport, as 
it must in all cities. Debt and taxation are growing here 
even more rapidly than wealth and industries. Density 
of population, by itself, generates new needs and calls for 
large expenditures, unnecessary and unknown in rural 
neighborhoods. The streets of a city must be lighted, 
paved, and cleaned. A city must have a public water 
supply and a system of sewerage, in the interest of public 
health. It must have police protection for the preserva- 
tion of the public peace. It must have an efficient fire 
department for the protection of property. All these and 
other like charges, the sum total of which forms a large 



20 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

part of municipal expenditure, are made necessary by 
mere congestion of population. The form of government 
is not responsible for them. And now the steady advance 
of state socialism, in high places no less than in low, is 
constantly throwing new burdens upon the public which 
have been and should be borne by private enterprise. 
The best that can be done in dealing with the unavoidable 
burdens is to secure honesty and prevent extravagance. 
If the city buys no more than it needs, and if it gets an 
honest equivalent for the purchase price, there is no 
ground of complaint. And as wealth centers in cities, 
these charges, under honest administration, are easily 
borne, and the public benefits which they provide are 
usually worth much more than their cost. 

The most radical of all the difficulties with city gov- 
ernment is in the anomalous relation between cities and 
the state. The accepted legal theory here is that local self- 
government is not a constitutional right but a political 
privilege, to be granted or withheld by the legislature in 
such measure as it sees fit. A city is but a branch of the 
state government, and as such a mere agency and instru- 
ment of the legislative will. It has the form of self- 
government but not the substance. All its public powers 
are held at sufferance of the legislature, which ma}^ grant 
such as it pleases, modify or withdraw them as it pleases, 
or step in on any occasion and exercise by its own hand 
the powers which it has granted to the city. The guber- 
natorial veto, not always wisely or justly exercised, adds 
another complication to legislative control. It has 
hitherto been understood that the power of the state to 
compel a city to tax its inhabitants is limited, at most, to 
the common public needs. But judicial wisdom now 
declares that objects in the nature of luxuries, to be paid 
for by compulsory taxation, may be forced upon a city 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 21 

against its will by legislative decree; that a city may be 
compelled to adorn itself with parks, for example, or 
incidentally with improved architecture, at its own 
expense and according to the legislative taste. If such a 
power exists, it can have no limit except the legislative 
pleasure. Fancy a gallery of pictures or statuary selected 
by a committee of the General Court and the bill sent to 
the city by order of that body — yet to this we may 
come. 

The judicial view of the relations between the state 
and the city is contrary to all the facts of our history. In 
Massachusetts we know that the towns made the state, 
not the state the towns. Apparently it would have been 
easy, clearly it would have been more wholesome, to hold 
in the outset that the privileges of the towns under the 
ancient charters were not disturbed by adopting the con- 
stitution; leaving to them at least such local indepen- 
dence as they had previousl}^ enjoyed, and carrying over 
these powers and privileges of the inhabitants unimpaired 
upon the erection of a town into a city. But the other 
view was adopted in the earliest times and has always 
been maintained; with the result that, whereas under the 
crown the local communities enjoyed a liberal measure 
of freedom, under the republic the}' are but little more 
than mere vassals and dependencies of the state. 

Nor have we any constitutional restraints against 
special legislation for cities; though there is some com- 
pensation for this in escaping the necessity of resort to 
the absurd devices employed to evade such restraint in 
states where it exists. It rests with the legislature alone 
to determine when, upon what pretext, and to what 
extent it will interfere in the direct government of any 
city. It may take in charge the appointment and removal 
of city officers, — and while actual legislative interference 



22 KXKTIKTH ANNIVERSARY OF TJfE 

in Massachusetts has not yet extended farther than 
assumption of the control of the police, it was but the 
other day that the legislature of a neighboring common- 
wealth turned out the officers of three great cities, filling 
their places with its own nominees, and the courts were 
obliged to sustain this action as within legislative power. 
Tlie legislature may extend or curtail the tax levy, or the 
borrowing power; dictate what money the city may or 
shall spend and for what purposes; lay out streets; con- 
struct or order the construction at the city's expense of 
public buildings or other public works; or compel the 
city to contribute to the cost of enterprises in which it 
has no title and may have no real interest. The public 
property of the city is wholly under legislative control, 
and may be dealt with and disposed of as the legislature 
sees lit. While this is a reasonable rule for public prop- 
erty of a character recjuiring one uniform system of con- 
trol, the public highways for example, it is not reasonable 
that a city should be wholly subject to tlie legislative will 
as to property held for local purposes. Still more unjust 
and absurd is it that the city should be subject to compul- 
sory levies of taxation to provide objects of indulgence 
wholly beyond the proper public necessities, and that it 
should have no secure title to property paid for by taxa- 
ti(jn ol' its inhabitants. Such a system is wrong in prin- 
ciple and j)ernici(jus in results. 

The direct consequence of unrestrained legislative 
control (jf cities is to bring chaos upon municipal admin- 
istration. How much money shall be raised by taxation, 
or borrowed, or spent, or for what, may be determined at 
h(;nie or it may be determined at the state capital, accord- 
ing to the exigencies of politics. If a city job is defeated 
in council or vetoed by the mayor, the promotors per- 
suade a compliant legislature to do it or order it done; 



CITY CHARTER OK NEWBURYPORT 23 

and conversel}', if a city undertakes a proper public 
enterprise to which an active minority is opposed, they 
invoke, often successfully, the interference of the legislat- 
ure to prevent it. Where power is scattered responsibil- 
ity disappears. Neither state-house nor city-hall can be 
held accountable for what goes wrong. The people, 
having no real power, cease to feel any responsibility. 
They become indifferent to their own political duties and 
even to the character of their candidates for municipal 
office; knowing that if good men are elected they may 
be controlled or thwarted by a superior power, and trust- 
ing that if bad men are elected the same power can be 
persuaded to stand in their way. 

In some of the later constitutions of western states 
cities are given a much larger power of self-government 
than they have elsewhere enjoyed; an interesting experi- 
ment, the result of which should shed light upon the path 
to municipal reform. In important constitutional changes 
Massachusetts moves with deliberation. It is no easy 
task to draw the line between powers which ought to be 
confided to the cities and towns and powers which must 
remain in the state. A large measure of central control 
is essential to a symmetrical system. This is no time or 
place to pursue the discussion of changes in municipal 
polic}' so radical as to disturb the constitutional founda- 
tions; but no radical and permanent reform can be 
expected until cities are endowed with more of the rights 
and powers of responsible self-government. 

The adoption of city government involves abandon- 
ment of the town-meeting, justly regarded, not only by 
us who have been brought up under it but by all intelli- 
gent students of public questions, as the best form of 
local rule ever applied to our affairs. It makes every 
voting citizen a member of the governing body, with a 



24 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

direct share of the power and of the responsibility. The 
majority, which always desires good government, is 
actually in control. For this, city government substitutes 
a representative system which is not in fact representative. 
It does not, as a rule, actually reflect the opinions or the 
desires of the people. Cut off from direct participation 
in the government, divested of the sense of responsibility 
which goes hand in hand with power, his part reduced to 
voting once a year, usually for the candidates of a packed 
caucus, the average citizen, except in some emergency, 
lapses into indifference and his weight ceases to be felt 
in the scale. Under the one S3^stem he is on the spot, 
looking after his own affairs; under the other, while in 
theory represented by the one-hundredth or five-hun- 
dredth part of an alderman or councilman, in truth he 
counts for no more than a cipher in the sum total of the 
results. In proportion as the will and conscience of the 
individual citizen are eliminated from it, the character of 
the government declines. It ceases to be government by 
or for the people. An essential factor of the problem is 
to bring back the people to the actual control of their 
affairs. 

The prevailing American form of city government, 
a mayor and a council of two branches, is an anachronism, 
and, as applied to the government of our cities, an absurd- 
ity. It is sometimes supposed to be copied from English 
or other European forms of municipal government. It is 
really framed upon a model much nearer at hand, though 
quite as ill-suited to the purpose. In the struggle of 
centuries for popular rights, our English ancestors worked 
out the fabric of king, lords, and commons; an executive 
head and a legislature of two branches, one representing 
aristocratic power, the other the rights of the people. 
This general form was brought over to this country in 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 25 

the colonial charters, and was naturally followed in the 
earliest state constitutions, and later in the Federal consti- 
tution. When cities began to arise, it had become so 
fixed in the popular conception of government that it was 
carried into city charters, and there, with some slight 
variations, it has alwa3^s remained. A form of govern- 
ment essential to preserve the balance of powers and 
interests between the great estates of the realm, in dealing 
with the policies of a nation, may be very ill-adapted to 
the control of a city under institutions founded on equal 
rights and universal suffrage. City government, while 
not wholly a business affair, as is sometimes said, consists 
so largely in the collection and disbursement of money 
that the machinery should primarily be adapted to the 
honest and efficient conduct of such business. Among 
the people of a city there is no natural division of classes 
or interests calling for distinct representation; and if 
there were, such representation is not secured under the 
present forms. The only actual division is between those 
who want the government prudently conducted and the 
public funds honestly applied to their proper uses, and 
those who do not. The original reason for a legislative 
body of two chambers, — that each may represent a differ- 
ent class or interest, — does not exist. The remaining 
reason, — to secure further deliberation, and that each 
may be a check upon the excesses of the other, — is not 
satisfied by the existing system. It does not in fact 
answer this purpose. In fact the two branches divide 
and weaken responsibility, multiply opportunities for log- 
rolling, and impair the directness and force which are 
more essential in the control of city affairs than the larger 
deliberation which great public questions demand. 

Two rules or principles seem essential to efficient 
municipal organization. First, the whole executive power 



26 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

and responsibility should be vested in a single head; on 
the principle of Napoleon's aphorism that " nothing is so 
bad as a bad general, except two good generals." Second, 
all legislative power, — the power to determine all ques- 
tions of the general policy of the city, — should be vested 
in a single council, so large as to be a real representative 
body. In short, the system must contain the means of 
developing the true public sentiment, by responsible pub- 
lic discussion, and the means of efficient execution of the 
policy and the measures ordained by the deliberative 
branch. 

The powers of the council, being wholly of a legis- 
lative character, confined to settling the broader questions 
of policy which arise in city affairs, its duty is substan- 
tially discharged in the enacting of standing ordinances, 
— and the fewer they are and the less they are meddled 
with the better, — and in determining, once in each year, 
the amount and general destination of all appropriations 
and of the tax levy or loans required to meet them. 
These questions once disposed of, the whole power and 
duty of carrying the policy of the council into effect is 
left to the executive. For all these purposes, a few 
meetings early in the year would ordinarily be enough. 
The members of the council being thus relieved of the 
necessity of constant attendance and attention throughout 
the year, public-spirited citizens may be induced to accept 
membership in such numbers as to make it a truly repre- 
sentative body of the whole people, restoring to city gov- 
ernment the vigor and directness of control, and the 
element of personal interest in the governing power, 
which was lost in abandoning the town-meeting. The 
number may be as large as can conveniently assemble for 
public deliberation. In a city of moderate size this would 
afford room for an ample representation of all elements 
of the population. 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 27 

It is idle to talk of wholly eliminating the influence 
of political parties from any form of municipal govern- 
ment. Our habits of political thought and action will 
always make themselves felt. The existing party organ- 
izations will always be brought to bear with more or less 
effect. Non-partisan city government must be secured 
b}' indirection, if at all. Fix upon the head of the gov- 
ernment a degree of responsibility which he cannot evade 
and dare not abuse, and it will matter little what party 
label he wears. Make the representative body so broad 
that no scheme can be carried through it on party lines 
or from partisan motives, and the government will be as 
free of partisan influences as any government can be 
where political parties exist. 

It is not for me to advise the people of Newburyport 
to disturb or experiment with their local government. 
These suggestions are contributed to the general discus- 
sion of a question of the highest importance to the inhab- 
itants of cities. There is much reason to believe that the 
reform of city government in general, at least in cities of 
moderate size, must be sought and may be found in the 
application of the principles thus briefly indicated. If the 
occasion should arise, this city is perhaps as well adapted 
as any, in size, character, and situation, to put their 
merits to proof. 



Yet when all discussion touching forms of govern- 
ment is ended, the character of the people remains the 
vital thing. A thrifty and vigorous race will prosper in 
spite of bad government. There is in all healthy human 
society a tendency to improve its condition. It was long 
ago observed that no form or degree of misgovernment 
will do so much to make the situation of the people 
worse as the instinctive effort of every individual to 



28 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

improve his own situation will do to make it better. It 
was a remarkable body of men that peopled this region. 
They were predestined, by their own qualities, to political 
independence, but they would have grown great in spite 
of crowns or parliaments. If the folly of a mad king 
had not driven the American colonists to throw off his 
rule, if it were possible to conceive of the colonies as 
continuing dependencies of Great Britain, the character 
of the Puritan immigration would have raised up here, in 
the fullness of time, a state so mighty as to overshadow 
the imperial power of the mother-country herself. It is 
no light task to hold up the standard raised by such a 
race. Think of the great men who have gone in and out 
upon this very spot. If some magic power could summon 
back to their former haunts the shades of the illustrious 
dead whose names and memory are among the treasures 
of this city, what a glorious company would people these 
homes and streets! Thomas Parker, Samuel Sewall, 
Edward Rawson, William Dummer, the John Lowells 
and Francis Cabot Lowell, Tristram Dalton, George 
Whitefield; Jonathan, Charles, and Patrick Tracy Jack- 
son; Thomas Dawes, Theophilus Bradbury, George 
Thatcher, Robert Treat Paine, Jacob Perkins, Nicholas 
Pike, William Wheelwright, Dudley A. Tyng, Edward 
Bass, Samuel Webber, Cornelius C. Felton, William 
Plumer, Daniel Dana, John Quincy Adams, Theophilus 
Parsons, Rufus King, Benjamin and Simon Greenleaf, 
Caleb Gushing, Lucy Hooper, Hannah F. and Benjamin 
A. Gould, George Peabody, Benjamin Hale, George R. 
Noyes, Samuel S. Wilde, William Lloyd Garrison, John 
Pierpont, Samuel J. May, George Lunt, James Parton, 
Eben F. Stone, — a galaxy of pioneers, preachers, schol- 
ars, poets, philanthropists, jurists, statesmen, scientists, 
mechanicians, merchant princes, captains of industry, 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 29 

"on fame's eternal bead-roll worthie to be fyled." These 
men have given to Newburyport a character and distinc- 
tion that will remain so long as the city stands. Cities 
live in their character, not less than individuals. The 
home of great men, the theater of great events, the birth- 
place of ideas or forces which have helped to move the 
world — these possess an interest which space cannot 
limit nor time subdue. It was the character of the men 
and women of Newburyport that gave the town its fame. 
It was peopled by the flower of the Puritan immigration; 
— narrow men, perhaps; bigoted; austere; but meaning 
to be just and determined to be free. Some things they 
did which timid souls would forget, but nothing which can- 
not be openly avowed. Much of the wealth of old New- 
bur3'port, no doubt, came over the bar in the cabin or 
hold of the privateer, a hanger-on of war now passed into 
disrepute, and none too soon — but privateering was then 
legitimate warfare. Every step in their history was 
traced in character and courage. Look at them in the 
times of the embargoes. Foremost as they had been 
among the patriots of the Revolution, when the war of 
181 2 was forced upon the people, — an unnecessary war, 
pursued by measures of folly, more disastrous at home 
than abroad, — the men of Newburyport stood up and 
denounced it as foolish and unnecessary. They opposed 
it openly. They despised the embargo, and trampled it 
under their feet. And who shall say that this bold and 
manly stand against the blunders of an incompetent 
administration was not truer patriotism than the servile 
complaisance that knows no right or wrong save at the 
command of power? The patriot is he who sets his 
country right, and stands in the way when it goes wrong. 
If this is not patriotism, the Revolution was not. I do 
not say that these men were all heroes, but they were not 



3© FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

cowards, hypocrites, nor sycophants. They were neither 
ashamed nor afraid. It is an inspiration to recall them. 
It is a virtue to emulate them. Long may they be remem- 
bered here, and long may the race survive upon this spot 
which they made forever memorable! 

And as it is character, not numbers, that distinguishes 
a city, I trust that no citizen of Newburyport is disturbed 
by the slow growth of its population. The welfare of a 
city, or the happiness of its people, does not turn upon 
its place in a census-table. Moderate growth is natural, 
healthy, and desirable. The rapid swelling of a city may 
be no less a symptom or prognostic of disease than the 
swelling of a limb. It is no ill-fortune that the character, 
the identity of old Newburyport has not been swallowed 
up and effaced in the swarming population which now 
sets toward cities, and submerges others less fortunate 
than this. There is a satisfaction in thinking of this 
ancient community, robed in the dignity of her past, 
content to stand aloof from the hustling crowd in noble 
disdain of the folly that sees, or thinks it sees, greatness 
in bigness, — a weakness from which not even statesmen 
are exempt, even more fatal to nations than to men 
and cities. It is not difficult to account for the position 
of Newburyport. But for one of her most characteristic 
and interesting traits, her people today would be counted 
by tens or scores of thousands. Newburyport may fairly 
claim to have been the great colonizing town of the great 
colonizing county of the great colonizing state of the 
Union. Immediately after the Revolution, and to some 
extent before it, her people began to look abroad for 
"fresh fields and pastures new." Their pioneer blood 
would not allow them to rest in one spot, however attract- 
ive. The movement thus begun has never ceased. Her 
people have been scattered like the seeds of the pine, and 



CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 3I 

like the seeds of the pine they have taken root and 
grown. There is hardly a quarter of the earth in which 
they are not to be found. It was said at one of your 
anniversaries, a few years ago, that in the single city of 
New York were then living three hundred natives of 
Newburyport. Her filaments cover the whole North and 
the great West as with an invisible web, every thread 
vibrating to her influence and binding some new and 
distant community to the parent stock. Her children 
have settled states; they have built towns and founded 
cities. If you would number the people of Newburyport, 
look for them by the rivers and bays of Maine, on the 
hills of New Plampshire, in the valleys of Vermont, 
where they were among the first pioneers; beyond the 
Hudson and the Ohio, along the shores of the great lakes, 
on the banks of the Father of Waters, all over the plains 
that stretch to the range of the Rockies, and beyond to 
the Golden Gate — in every prosperous community 
between the Atlantic and Pacific seas on which the genius 
of New England has set its mark; wherever New Eng- 
land energy has cleared the forest, planted the soil, opened 
the mine, or harnessed the stream to the wheels of indus- 
try; wherever New England thrift bears fruit of pros- 
perity; wherever the New England conscience strength- 
ens public probity and holds up the standard of public 
morals; wherever the sterling New England character 
guides the thought and shapes the policy of states — there 
you will find the people of Newburyport, still sowing and 
gathering the harvest first planted on Quascacunquen by 
Thomas Parker and his little company, near three cen- 
turies ago; carrying the old town in their hearts; feeling 
her own pulsations in their blood; inspired with her 
memory and vindicating her example; — their numbers, 
character, and influence bearing witness that if Newbury- 



32 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

port has lost her own, she has taken the nation in 
exchange. 

What events confront us in the coming half-century 
which opens with this day, it is not given us to know. 
There will be changes, many and great. Science has but 
begun to unlock the secrets and unloose the forces of 
nature. Thought is everywhere fermenting today, as 
never before, with the complex problems of human 
society. Even the character of nations seems changing 
— let the American people look to it that their own is 
not transformed. For Newburyport, the vista opens upon 
the fairest prospects. Seated upon this beautiful spot, 
where the Merrimac, theme of poetry and romance, 
returns its waters to the sea; where the eye takes in a 
prospect of enchanting beauty — the spires and gables of 
the city, the smiling fields, the solemn woods, the silver 
river, the majestic waste of ocean; — endowed with every 
agency devised by man for the promotion of health, 
comfort, social elevation, and material welfare; planted 
upon the stable foundation of varied and flourishing 
industries; alive with intelligence, charity, culture, relig- 
ion, and crowned with the halo of splendid memories, — 
such are the happy conditions in which the record of the 
new half-century begins. May it be written in prosperity. 
May it be written in honor. May it be such that they 
who make it can look upon it with satisfaction, and they 
who come after with gratitude and pride. And when the 
chapter is closed; when the children of Newburyport, on 
the returning anniversary, gather about the ancient 
mother to crown her with the garland of an hundred 
years; may she say of this generation, with fond remem- 
brance, as she turns her smile undimmed by age on those 
who then surround her, — "Among all my children who 
have cherished me with stout hearts and willing hands, 
they too were worthy of my love and my benediction." 



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